The attack dog and the folk hero: Vance and Walz gear up for debate showdown

The pair, who have had sharp words for each other at a distance, will debate in close quarters at CBS event Tuesday

Tim Walz and JD Vance, the US Democratic and Republican candidates for vice-president, will face off on Tuesday in what is likely to be the last debate showdown between the two parties' election tickets before polling day in exactly five weeks' time.

The pair - who have had sharp words for each other at a distance - will engage in verbal combat in close quarters at a CBS-hosted event in New York, with the stakes raised by polling evidence that shows the contest between the two presidential nominees, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, poised on a knife edge.